


Springtime

by SilkCut



Series: Snapshots [10]
Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: April 1st, Gen, Happy Birthday Kimihiro Watanuki!, Oneshot, character examination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-12 21:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10500090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilkCut/pseuds/SilkCut
Summary: The many parallel regrets and forlorn aches that bind two wish-granters.





	

 

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There was another life she lived.

She was foolish then. Gifted with insight, she thought she could bend even the universe to her will. At times, she could.

It took years of tribulation and mad despair for her to realize that she shouldn’t.

There was even a boy too. She remembered that boy with striking clarity as if memories like hers are forever. She remembered that he was a prize worth having; that he allowed her to claim him, as he had claimed her.

Ultimately, he became a man she would often deny to have ever loved—but did.

Nowadays when the woman would think about the past, she would treat it as if it was a life that belonged to a stranger, or perhaps to an acquaintance she no longer had any business of associating with.

But she wasn’t always Yuuko Ichihara now.

And the boy before her wasn’t supposed to be Kimihiro Watanuki.

He wasn’t supposed to exist.

Yet Yuuko found him a welcome change. She had never been inclined to believe in absolutes after all, and Kimihiro Watanuki’s very existence meant she was correct. He was an anomaly; a being created as a replacement for another from a distant world. Yuuko found the entire ordeal suspicious and even gravely inconvenient. But choices have been made without her consent, and wishes need to come true after a fair and equal trade for their fulfilment.

Yuuko Ichihara is nothing but dutiful. The man she once loved and now despised had condemned her to a time paradox, and there was nothing she could do now but to move forward even though she, quite literally had stood still—stuck in a limbo. Never ageing, never dying. There has to be a way to fix this conundrum.

This anomaly of a teenage boy is one of the many obligations left in her care, and he may just be the key. There have been so many wounds in time that this woman who calls herself Yuuko now is left to hold together—to heal. And she would untangle each suffocating thread, starting with the anomaly in question; this boy Watanuki.

An April Fool.

How befitting.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

There was another life he could have lived.

He was foolish then. Gifted with the sight, he thought he could outrun his ghosts and even escape the universe that threatens to swallow him whole. At times, he thought it would succeed, and he would just disappear.

It took the smallest yet most earnest moments of friendship, and his stubborn determination to cling to life for him to realize that he shouldn’t have to disappear.

There was another boy too; an oaf called Doumeki who never left his side as if a lifetime could last forever, and he is free to waste it in any way he wants. He remembered that Doumeki was a nuisance but one that is worth having. And so he allowed this bastard to stay, as he had vowed never to cause him pain again.

Ultimately, Doumeki became a man he would often prevent himself from falling for time and time again—but did.

Nowadays when the man would think about the past, he would treat it as if it was a story in a book, just a series of short, faded moments—like snapshots.

He wasn’t supposed to be Kimihiro Watanuki.

He wasn’t supposed to exist.

Yet a wish granter named Yuuko Ichihara found him as much as he found her. She had never been sociable or nurturing, but Watanuki relied on her as if his very existence was at stake. And it was for he was an anomaly; a being created as a replacement for another from a distant world. Yuuko was patient, though. She taught him how choices have to be made with caution and awareness, and that wishes could only come true once a fair and equal trade for their fulfilment had taken place.

Yuuko Ichihara was also nothing if not mysterious. She was a woman condemned to a time paradox. She, quite literally had stood still—stuck in a limbo. Never ageing, never dying. There have been so many wounds in time that Yuuko healed once she finally passed and accepted her death. And Watanuki had been afraid to lose her in the first place, so he turned his vow into a wish that could never be reversed. The universe did not swallow him like he feared, but it had taken a large part of him—his mortality—his freedom. It preserved him while others perished.

He could never have any other life aside from the one he doomed himself into living.

He was a fool.

How befitting the punishment for that was.

 

 

 

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